Internal InvoicingNightmare or Challenge?
Sussi Mikaelsson & Carina Forsberg, Umeå University
Malin Ceder, University of Gothenburg
Dorothea Kapitza, Helmholtz Association
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Internally invoiced costs– the problem in a H2020 project
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Within organizations there are centralized core facilities that provide products and services to projects. All subject to internal invoiced costs.
The selling core facility usually calculate the costs using allocation keys, average costs and sometimes include some indirect costs.
The challenge is: How to make sure that there are no hidden indirect cost, allocation keys or average costs in internally invoiced unit costs charged in the H2020 project?
The SUHF Model of SwedenAll University´s in Sweden applies a model for calculating indirect costs introduced by the Association of Swedish Higher Education. The model divides the activities into main activities (research and education) and support activities.
Indirect costs: Costs that are common to several or all cost carriers, and consist of costs for university, faculty and department functions. Indirect costs are allocated to cost carriers.
The Support activities are divided into six functions:• Management• Education and research support• Financial and HR service• Library• Other / level specific
Core facilities are regarded as core business as agreed with other institutions in medical schools.
Cost for Premises are not charged to Horizon 2020 projects and costs normally considered as indirect cost are not reported as direct costs in Horizon 2020 projects.
Most often personnel that works with financial and HR normally are defined as indirect costs which also Office equipment and office materials, office space and postage are defined as.
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Internal Rules and Policies
Internal Invoice
Internal Invoicing an example
Financial Statement
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Internal Invoicing an exampleExternal Invoice
Internal InvoiceInternal
Invoice
Internal Invoice
Internal Invoice
Internal Invoice
Rules concering Internally InvoicedCosts - Overview
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Horizon 2020 Regulations – MGA (Version 1-3)
SEITE 7
- Splitting-up in H2020 cost categories.- H2020 formal time records and hourly rate calculation for each service.- No acceptance of average costs per type of cost or accountancy of cost types (bundles of equipment depreciation, materials and services).
+ Internal invoices normally include the accounting for certain cost types per usage or time (e.g. use of labatory, MRT, mouse per week).+ Internally invoiced costs naturally contain a mixture of costs for the usage of equipment, services and material.+ Service included in the cost type is not measured by H2020 time records (via minute protocols). Instead the internal invoice offers an auditable trail how much time was spent by personnel on the action .
Formal & administrative requirements
Reality
H2020 Regulations – Reality check
Tests withlab animalse.g. cost-type „mouse week“ =
Other examples : DNA sequencing
Usage of a cleanroom
Climate chambers etc.
SEITE 8
Care
•Veterinary•Animal keeper•Desinfection and
safety measures
Testing
•Technical staff: Experimental setup
• Scientific staff: Realisation ofexperiment
Material
•Consumables (cageaccessories, bedding, food etc.)
•Consumables (testingmaterial)
Equipment Usage of laboratories and special
equipment (depreciation) Maintenance
The Helmholtz-Initiative for a better regulationTogether with other European partner organisations the
Helmholtz Association adressed a joint position paper on internal invoicing to the European Commission in January2016
The Helmholtz Associations was called on by the European Commission to choose experts of the undersigningorganisations. These experts were able to put forwardconcrete examples for internal invocing and submitted theircases and relevant data to the European Commission.
On the 17th of June 2016 these experts met the European Commission in Brussels to present their cases and discusspossible solutions.
SEITE 9
The new Model Grant Agreement Art. 6.2.D.5 (February 2017, Version 4.0)
Costs of internally invoiced goods and services directly used for the action are eligible, if:
(a) they are declared on the basis of a unit cost calculated in accordance with the beneficiary’s usual cost accounting practices;
b) the cost accounting practices used are applied in a consistent manner, based on objective criteria, regardless of the source of funding
c) the unit cost is calculated using the actual costs for the good or service recorded in the beneficiary’s accounts, excluding any ineligible cost or costs included in other budget categories.
The actual costs may be adjusted by the beneficiary on the basis of budgeted or estimated elements. Those elements must be relevant for calculating the costs, reasonable and correspond to objective and verifiable information;
(d) the unit cost excludes any costs of items which are not directly linked to the production of the invoiced goods or service.
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Positive changes
SEITE 11
Acceptance of beneficiaries usual accounting practices
Unit costs can include personnel costs, material andequipment – no splitting up any more!
Estimated cost elements allowed
No more time sheets necessary for personnel costs ifauditible trace is provided
Example budget from realityOther costsCourses, training 227 664Service of equipment 304 798Bedding 330 043Forage 426 209Consumables 190 000Depreciation costs 2 474 278
Energy costs; electricity, heat, cold 2 413 000Cleaning costs 442 320Laundry costs 576 565Rent for EBM 7 919 580Fee for IT‐network and service 353
Amount 15 304 809
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Data below are totals that are split between facilities Salary/yearExecutive officer
Göran Larson10%, Mary-Jo Wick50%, Carina Mallard10% 1 132 302
Head of dep. Data below are totals that are split between facilities Salary/year
Executive officerGöran Larson10%, Mary-Jo Wick50%, Carina Mallard10% 1 132 302
Head of dep. Morgan Lidén 60% 618 567Facilitymanager Facility manager Anders Eliasson 704 245
Veterinary Veterinary Lars Ewaldsson, Aina MoeBäck, Abdulhussain Haamid 2 802 837
Research Administrator Research Administrator Ewa Crusner Gustafsson 80%
469 999Research Coordinator Research Coordinator Maria Hansen 80%
433 033Economist Economist Birgitta Kilenstam 50% 321 995
Technical staff Technical staff Kjell Karlsson, Benny Andersson, Leif Sundkvist 1 588 308
Service Staff Service StaffCarina Berlin, Rosita Oldenburg, Barbro Hasselberg 1 171 164
Washing dep Washing dep Jan Svensson, Tolga Aras, Jill Christiansen, Martin Wobuyu 1 542 636
• The unit cost is calculated using the actual costs for the good or service recorded in the beneficiary’s accounts, excluding any ineligible cost or costs included in other budget categories
• Unit costs could be adjusted according to beneficiaries budgeted or estimated elements
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New budget Table
I n d i r e c t c o s t s
” Indi rect costs are costs that are not d i rect ly l inked to the act ion implementat ion and therefore cannot be att r ibuted d i rect ly ”
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Indirect costs in most organisationsDefinitely indirect Not always indirectGeneral management General ITRegistrary Office spaceHuman Resources Basic Lab materialsLegal Department Electricity for ex. clean roomsLibrariesCommunicationsProcurementPostageAdministrative, clerical staffGeneral Water and ElectricityDesktop computer and telephonesInsurancesMaintenenace of equipment
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Discussion
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How do youcalculate unitcosts in yourorganisation?
What is considered as indirect costs?
What to wishfor in FP9?
Contact information
Umeå UniversityGRANTS OFFICESE-901 87 Umeå, SWEDENwww.umu.se/grantsoffice
Helmholtz Association - Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren e.V.Rue du Trône 98, 1050 – Brussels
www.helmholtz.de
University of Gothenburg Grants Office, Box 100, 405 30 Gothenburg, SWEDEN
www.gu.se/researchinnovation
Umeå UniversityGRANTS OFFICE SE-901 87 Umeå, SWEDENwww.umu.se/grantsoffice
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